Worth Protecting
by Battypichugirl2
Summary: Riza and Winry have more in common than it would seem. Implied Royai and EdWin.


**A/N: Heyyy guys~ Look, I'm still alive! XDD Very sorry, really. Life has been so busy. Just as the college things are slowing down, school decides it's time to turn up the homework load, and I have my extracurriculars. ;w; Plus, I've been busy helping resurrect my friend's FMA forum too.**

**Anyway, this is for my friend Flags, who requested something about Riza and Winry. This was actually fairly hard for me, since they only have that one scene on the train together after Winry finds out Mustang was the one who killed her parents. I can't believe I finished it so fast, and it's a bit short, but here it is, and I hope you like it, Flagsy. ^_^  
**

At first glance, Riza Hawkeye and Winry Rockbell seem to only have in common their gender and hair color. Riza lives in Central City, one of the largest cities in Amestris. Winry lives in a small, rural village. Riza is a soldier; Winry designs automail. Riza's pistol has ended the lives of many. Winry's wrench works to the enhancement of injured people's lives.

Yet, Riza and Winry share an understanding of each other that many married couples never could. It's an odd kind of understanding—Riza will probably never share Winry's passion for the fine, inner workings of machinery, and Winry knows she could never adjust to a life in the military.

They don't know very much about each other, in the traditional sense of "knowing" people. They couldn't name each other's favorite foods or what kind of weather they felt most comfortable in, or the silly little fears and annoyances that could make one go off like no other. They don't know any of these kind of questions about what made each other tick, but they know all they need.

Worry. That one, singular human experience is the thread that manages to connect them so powerfully.

They both had felt worry for the ones important to them—regularly getting in harm's way chasing their dreams, and all the painful emotions that went with it. The fear, frustration, anger, anxiety…and then, that wonderful, glorious feeling when time and again, they turn out to be okay. When they hold up under the pressure of the burdens they're not willing to share. They've both felt those ups and downs that their worries provide, and they know what those worries mean about their own feelings for the object of their concerns. They know that as long as their loved ones have their dreams to chase, they would always worry…but that was okay, because whatever happened, come hell or high water, they would always be there for them, ready with a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on (even if they were never used)…a loaded pistol and a projectile wrench.

So when Winry sees Riza berate Colonel Mustang for being lazy with his paperwork, or flirting with women carelessly, or shirking his duties to go on a date (with one of Havoc's girlfriends, usually), a knowing smile alights on her young features. And when the First Lieutenant is out of sight and earshot of her colonel, she reciprocates the gesture, a slight chuckle escaping at times, as if she wasn't really angry, but just wanted to make him sweat a little for all the times he made her worry about him, and her life and her gun were still and would always be devoted to him.

Winry understands now that the question isn't whether Roy is personally worth protecting—whether he deserves it or not—but whether Riza herself finds protecting him worth it. She has dedicated herself to that man and seeing to it that his dream is fulfilled; he's worth protecting because she has decided it to be so, and that's all there is to it. And she knows that she's a lot like Riza in this way, because she'll always worry and grumble about not being told what's going on in Ed and Al's lives, and when Ed comes in on one of his unannounced visits, usually with busted-up automail, her first greeting will probably be that projectile wrench again.

But she also knows that when he finally needs to release some of that pressure—the frustration of three years of fruitless searching, the guilt of having done what was strictly forbidden and gotten off easier than his brother, who had his doubts from the beginning…her ear and shoulder would be there for him too, just as always.

Because, after all, Ed is worth protecting too.


End file.
